Dennerle Marinus 30L (8gallon)

[mattiasbrann]

Hello!

5 days ago i started up my first reef, a tiny but shiny 8gallon tank.
i made the original setup-process explained by dennerle except i never put any living sand. I really love the looks from a bare-bottom tank and i have read many positive reviews about it.

2 days ago i bought the ls. I found 1 piece that i enjoyed looking at (colourful) and that i believed had the "correct size" and look for a nano. (space for corals etc). I have not seen massive life from it but there is atleast 1 tiny shrimp running around inside it, and there are 1 dead pink work om the bottom of the tank together with a dead tiny tiny sea-star looking creature (white with kind of razor-legs).

My questions are:
1. Its pretty purple/red in the colors. This is fully normal i hope? As i understand its somekind of algae ? (i like the colors)

2. The loss of some life from the stone is also normal during this startup period?

3. Is the stone i found enough or should i add a bit more? (i think with corals it will look good, minimalistic and nice?).

So far the only values of the water i have checked are the salt, wich is 1.23.

Best regards from Stockholm, Sweden!

 

[shifty51008]

1. The red, purple colors are normal and good it is called coraline algae but an algae you want.

2. I wouldnt say there is loss of life, live rock is live because of the bacteria on it. If you wanna see the liveing stuff use a flashlight with a red lens and shine it on the rock when dark, then you should see pods, and other stuff you dont see when lights are on.

3. The rock you have looks nice and may be enough, if all you keep is corals then yes it will be plenty.

Make sure your also checking ammonia, nitrate during start up to see how the cycle is comming along but starting out with all live rock you may not see much of a cycle. I would also bump up the salinity to 1.026 and keep and eye on the temp.

[Welcome]